I've played the first 6 hours or so of this, and, considering I'm not a huge fan of this kind of game, I really enjoyed it. It had some pretty major difficulty spikes early on, but then I also sucked at it and ended up turning the difficulty down :P

The story didn't seem terribly strong, but it was heating up a bit just as I got kicked off, so I'm hoping it improves.

What difficulty did you start as/end up at? I don't think I had a difficulty choice in the demo, and the demo was hard. I played it 3-4 times though and I was much better at it after a few tries. Especially that boss.

Oh I have no hope for the story. I just hope it's at least entertaining, like MGS4 is. But I'm down for Raiden getting revenge on whoever. :P

"[The] cutscenes were written by KojiPro, directed by KojiPro, recorded by KojiPro, edited by KojiPro. We used our cutscene team to implement them since it was our engine/assets. Hope that clears that up."

First of all; suck it up. Second of all; yes, it has been confirmed many times by Platinum and KojiPro staffers alike that this game is a 100% concrete part of the MGS canon, and no amount of whining or pretending is going to change that.

How do I get S-Ranks?

The game ranks you in five categories: damage taken, highest combo, time spent in battle, number of zandatsus (spine rips) performed, and BP accrued by slicing off limbs. Do well in each of those categories so that your score totals over 5000 (4000 for bosses) and you're golden.

What's the difference between the two versions?

The PS3 version looks prettier, has uncompressed cutscenes and gets exclusive VR Mission DLC, but suffers from a bit of stuttering and one or two missing effects. The Xbox 360 version runs more smoothly but has noticable screen tearing at times, as well as missing out on the DLC.

I've played the first 6 hours or so of this, and, considering I'm not a huge fan of this kind of game, I really enjoyed it. It had some pretty major difficulty spikes early on, but then I also sucked at it and ended up turning the difficulty down :P

The story didn't seem terribly strong, but it was heating up a bit just as I got kicked off, so I'm hoping it improves.

What difficulty did you start as/end up at? I don't think I had a difficulty choice in the demo, and the demo was hard. I played it 3-4 times though and I was much better at it after a few tries. Especially that boss.

Oh I have no hope for the story. I just hope it's at least entertaining, like MGS4 is. But I'm down for Raiden getting revenge on whoever. :P

I started on Normal, flicked it down to Easy once or twice. A couple of other guys were doing the same. But I'm playing it through again now on Normal and doing ok... I think I'm just sucking less!

"During the World Tour Launch Party 2013 some new details on the DLC plans for Metal Gear Rising in Japan were announced. Information was provided on three batches of DLC. The first will include 30 new VR missions. Aside from that, the player will receive a special weapon: a wooden sword that is infused with Solid Snake's soul, and is aptly named the Soul Snake Wooden Sword. Snake's voice (by Akio Otsuka) will even sound if you swing it (this is the reason the voice actor was at the event today). This DLC pack will be released in April of this year, for a price of 300 yen."

You can hear the voice of Akio Otsuka at the end of the "Boss Weapon(s)" trailer I posted before.

This dude on gaf posted details about the wooden sword, interesting stuff:

"The Wooden Sword is unique because it cannot cut anything: No blade mode, and no barrier breaking, meaning you have to switch to something else. It is basically a totally blunt object. It doesn't have a unique 'attack' string, as it shares the combos of the HF blades, but it has something else that makes it really interesting.

The sword has a % chance to make humanoid enemies (ones that would count as 'kills') vanish, starting at a 2% chance and going to a 20% chance when fully upgraded. Enemies that 'vanish' in this way are removed from the game, but do not count towards your kills, meaning it is the perfect weapon if you are attempting a 'No Kill' run of the game. (The book doesn't say what it does against bosses, however, so I couldn't tell you how it affects them).

Also, instead of a power UPgrade, it has power DOWNgrades, meaning that it is the perfect weapon for people looking for an extreme challenge, but also for doing things like an S-Rank Easy Mode run through, because it allows you to put together very long combos and rack up a lot of points on enemies. By the time you are finished 'upgrading' its power, it basically does almost no damage at all to enemies."